Los partidos de fútbol

So far in Spain I have been to two fútbol games. The first one was Valladolid or "Pucela" against Mallorca, and the second one was a friendly between España and Argentina. I had so much fun at both of those games! I don't think I've posted pictures of the Valladolid game, and I know I haven't posted any of the España game. I just wanted to share with all of you at home because these games were both so much fun and if you ever come to visit Spain or Europe, I highly recommend that you go to a futbol game.

 Cheering with all the "Pucela" fans and the Valladolid game

 

Valladolid fútbol stadium.. "Pucela" is the colloquial term for "Valladolid"

This past Saturday seven of us headed out to Madrid and got to spend the day there. Our main stop was a Mexican food restaurant named "Sí Señor." It was absolutely delicious.

Tacos, nachos, guac, salsa.... yum!

We had a wonderful time that entire day and the game was so much fun! We got to see some of the best players in the entire world play against each other (my mamá says that she thinks Messi is the best player in the world). Even though it was just a "friendly," both teams played their hearts out. Argentina got a bunch of yellow cards, but España won the game. There were so many fans from both teams, and I wouldn't have traded my experience for anything.

 España and Argentina getting ready to play

Atletico Madrid stadium for the España vs Argentina game

Iker Casillas ... one of the best goal keepers in the entire world

España's winning PK!!

 Helena, Maryn, me, Steph and Laura with our España "bufandas" (bufanda means scarf)

Thank you SO much to Becca for going through all that trouble to get us all those tickets. I know you went out of your way and we all appreciate it so much.

Mommy y Jeffy viaja a España

Two weeks ago my mom and Jeff came to visit me in Spain. It was so wonderful to see them! They went to Toledo for a day, and then headed over to Salamanca where I met them on Saturday. Our Cal Poly group had a day trip there, so Mommy and Jeffy got to tour around with us while I attempted to translate what our tour guide was saying. Generally the most they got was "Something happened in the sixteenth century..."

Astronaut engraved on the wall of the Salamanca cathedral

The entire day, the weather was not very good. When we got there it was cold and windy, and then around lunch time it started to POUR rain. That was okay, though, because we were able to duck into a little restaurant-café and have lunch. The rest of the day, we toured around and hung out. We walked along the river a little bit and then caught a train back to Valladolid.

Me and Mommy on top of the cathedral

Salamanca (I just really liked this picture)

The next day I ate a wonderful breakfast at their hotel and then we got to go to the Sunday "mercadillo" with Helena and Maryn. There were booths with new clothes and stuff, but then there was also a flea market type section that was super cool. It looked like a bunch of stolen stuff, but we had fun walking through it and looking at all the cool old things like sewing machines, books, and old keys. I got a few good pictures, and Mommy bought me some old keys.

Books at the market

Keys from "el mercadillo"

That day we went to eat Chinese food which was actually really good! It was very similar to the Chinese food we get at home. I think Mommy and Jeffy liked it too. That night we ate at a little café and we were all happy because nobody was smoking! That's pretty rare for Spain.

The next day, Monday, I had class and Mommy and Jeffy took the bus out to the Centro de Idiomas and joined us for my Oral Communication class and met my mamá. I then took them back to my apartment so they could see where I live, and we grabbed tapas for lunch (Jeff really wanted to try out a tapas bar, so I took him to one... I think he was disappointed because he had a very different conception of what a "tapas bar" is).

Me and Eva, my "mamá"

Me and Mommy outside of the law school

Monday night Mommy and Jeffy took me, Helena and Maryn out to a delicious dinner. It was so wonderful!

I had an awesome time with them while they were here. I am sad I couldn't spend more time with them, but I am looking forward to seeing them when I get home in less than a month! I am also looking forward to spending time with the other half of my family when they get here on SUNDAY!!

La Peluquería

Okay, so I know I have posted a lot within the past 24 hours, but I just thought that this was a pretty momentous occasion so I would post a blog about it.

For the past few weeks, I have barely been able to see because my bangs have gotten so long so this afternoon I got my hair cut at the "peluquería." Despite my 30 min conversation at lunch with my mamá where she attempted to teach me the words and phrases I needed to know in order to get my hair cut the way I wanted it, I didn't remember any of it and therefore none of it was helpful.

When I got there I sat down and was like "uhh I don't know how to speak Spanish so... (using hand motions) I want this shorter, this shorter, this in layers (although I didn't know the word for layers.. so I just motioned and she knew what I meant)."

She did a great job... but it is definitely a Spanish style haircut. It is not bad, it is just definitely not what I am used to. Before I left, she blow dried it for me and used a straightener to flip out the top layers... ummm definitely not something that I normally do. As all my friends said, I definitely looked more Spanish at that point.

Anyway, even though I was super scared to go in and get it cut, it was something that had to be done and I did it all by myself and communicated to the best of my ability and I even learned something along the way, aka Spanish vocab words for in the hair salon.

Its short and still a little flipped out... earlier it was definitely much more prevalent. But alas, I can see again!

For those of you who haven't been to the hair salon yet but will eventually need to go... here are just a few words that would have been helpful for me:

flequillo = bangs

a capas = layers

melena = long (well.. mane but it pertains to long hair)

liso = smooth (at the end, when she is going to blow dry it, she asks you what you want done with it, liso is just the basic blow dry with minimal styling and no extra product... at least that was my interpretation)

Sevilla y Granada

This past weekend eight of us girls headed down to the south of Spain in the "la comunidad autónoma" of Andalucía. We took an over night bus to Granada and arrived at around 6:30 in the morning. Unfortunately, that bus ride was a little nerve wracking because when we checked in with the hostel to make sure that we had reservations and that they had linens and stuff, there was no information about the hostel online at all!! The website said it was down and we couldn't find the hostel listed on any of the hostel booking websites (like hostelworld.com). Fortunately, when we got to the hostel, the lady explained everything.

Apparently the police were closing down a bunch of the hostels in Granada because they were not registered. There were only two hostels that were registered in the whole city, so those were the only two that were open. Fortunately for us, one of the hostels that remained open and legal was right next door to the one we had initially booked. The owner of the first hostel was extremely nice and made arrangements for us to stay at the other hostel for the same price that we would have paid initially. The hostel ended up being absolutely amazing. It was a little backpackers hostel and it was so cute. There was a little fort thing with hammocks, chairs, and comfy pillows to sit on. The bathroom was co-ed, but I only ever saw girls in the bathroom when I was there, so that is was comforting. We couldn't check in until one in the afternoon, but they let us keep our bags there so that they would be safe and we wouldn't have to carry them around when we went to the Alhambra that afternoon. When we got there, the guy who was working the front desk told us where we could put our bags, then he went into the kitchen and put together toast and coffee and such so that we could have breakfast. It was so nice!

Picture of the hostel (there weren't really any good angles to take a picture, though...)

Around 9:30ish (I think) we headed out to the Alhambra. The Alhambra is one of the most visited tourist destinations in Spain, as well as in Europe. We had bought tickets prior to coming to Granada because you have to reserve a specific time for entry into the central part. If you miss your entrance time that is posted on your ticket, they won't let you in. They are very strict about that. So we got there early, and toured around the gardens and other buildings before it was actually time for us to go inside. Everybody was getting hungry and grumpy because we had been awake for so long and had eaten a small breakfast very early, but we entered the Alhambra at 12:30 and didn't get out until about 2:30 or later. We then grabbed lunch and headed back to the hostel.

The sign at the entrance

view from the windows of one of the buildings

me... as Caroline says, it looks like I'm sitting on a painting

I'm basically in love with this picture!

It was nice to freshen up when we got back to the hostel. I took a shower, made my bed, and just relaxed for a bit. We got to talking to a girl who had just graduated from college in the States and was touring around Europe by herself for two months. It is amazing to me that people do that all alone! I think I would get lonely and I'd be too scared. That day was Halloween, so the hostel was making special paella for everybody. We paid seven euro and got a cup of delicious sangria as well as a HUGE plate of delicious chicken and veggie paella. It was the best paella I've had so far! At dinner we sat with people from all over the world. We mostly talked to a guy from Chile who was very cryptic about why he was in Spain (he said something about teaching people how to make atomic bombs... I don't buy it), and a girl from Argentina. We also talked to the staff a little bit and just hung out. It was cool to practice our Spanish language skills in a different setting. Jessie and I talked to each other for a while, but we did it all in Spanish which was pretty cool.

Paella... see the scary face made by the peppers?

After dinner, we headed up to a pretty lookout spot where you could see the Alhambra at night. Although it was hard to get pictures because it was so dark, the view was spectacular and it was nice to just sit and look out upon the lights of the city of Granada. We then walked down to the main streets of Granada and grabbed gelato. It was the most beautiful display of gelato I'd ever seen... and it tasted really good too!

Blurry picture of the Alhambra at night

Delicious gelato! (the picture doesn't do it too much justice)

The next day we took a bus to Sevilla and arrived at our hostel without a glitch. We had a room all to ourselves, and we had a private bathroom too. That was nice because we weren't worried about our stuff sitting out and we could relax a little bit about beds and stuff. The hostel (Urbany) organized a walking tour, so we got a free tour of Sevilla. We walked around with the tour group for about two or three hours and the guide (who wasn't actually a trained tour guide, but knew a lot about the city) was super nice. We met people from all over the world in our tour group. There were boys from Canada who were studying in Denmark, girls from Germany who were studying in Spain, Australians, etc. It was pretty cool.

The girls before the walking tour

(Top: Genelle, me, Jessie, Kelsey, Julie, Hanna; Bottom: Dalia and Helena)

After our tour, we went to an awesome flamenco show. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but the show was spectacular. It is funny because the guy we were talking to the night before about Sevilla said that we should go to a specific place for a flamenco show. Also, when my mom visited Spain a few years ago, she and Jeff went to a flamenco show and she was saying that I should go to a specific one because they really enjoyed it. None of us remembered the name of the place we were supposed to go so we just chose one that was relatively cheap, and it turned out to be the same place that the Chilean guy and my mom had both recommended! After flamenco, we grabbed a few cheap tapas down the street from our hostel (really really good bocadillos) and headed out to see the city at night.

 

They only let us take pictures at the very end so I don't have very many good ones :(

By two in the morning, a few of us were tired so Genelle, Dalia, and I headed back to the hostel. We ended up staying up super late and talking about life, but it was nice to be in pj's, and just sitting in bed chatting to some girlfriends.

The next morning, we got up, ate the free breakfast at the hostel, and walked over to tour the cathedral. It is the biggest Gothic cathedral in the world, and the third biggest cathedral. The architecture was absolutely amazing (as it normally is in the cathedrals I've seen), and we climbed up the tower to get a view of all of Sevilla. This cathedral is also where Christopher Columbus is buried. Well, actually, not all of Christopher Columbus is buried there... just a finger, but still. They don't actually know where the rest of him is. Don't ask me why. After that, we went souvenir shopping on a cute little street. I got some beautiful black and white prints of flamenco dancers, as well as a shot glass to add to my collection.

Yup... that's us holding up our fingers in honor of Christopher Columbus who is buried behind us...

Overall, the weekend was successful. I enjoyed the company of the girls I was around and the cities were absolutely beautiful. I wish that I'd had more time in each of them (you could probably do at least a weekend in each one), but the time that I did have there was spent well. I wish I hadn't been so stressed the entire time I was there, but I guess stress is just part of the package when I am taking 18 units while studying abroad, traveling, and trying to get good grades.

la semana pasada

The past few weeks have been a little crazy. I have been stressed about so many things and the only thing I have wanted to do is relax... and I can barely do that.

Last week I had my midterm in my Witch Hunt in Europe class taught by Professor Hiltpold. Although I am really enjoying the discussions we have in that class, there was a lot of information to know and it was hard to go back through my notes and figure out everything that he told us would be on the test. Luckily, he tells us exactly what we will be tested on, and sure enough, that stuff was the only stuff on the test. There were five short response questions and one essay to write. We will get that test back this afternoon... I am not sure how I did.

On top of that, I really missed home. I missed my family, especially my little sister (love you Liana!!), and I have been having the worst cravings for food from home. It's not that I don't enjoy the food here, it's just very different from home. They put seasoning on their food, but most of it is not spicy. I miss my spicy Mexican food and kung pao chicken from Panda Express. I have a mental list of all the food that I miss from home and I will make it a point to eat all of it by the time I head back to SLO at the end of December or the beginning of January. On that list are my dad's hamburgers, Cindy and Daddy's spaghetti, Cindy's tacos, Mommy's lemon chicken, Jeffy's "slab o' meat," Mommy's Fajitas, El Balazo, pita pit, salad, chips and salsa, guacamole, turkey bacon, THANKSGIVING FOOD!, and just the normal things that I get to snack on when I get hungry in the middle of the day. The eating schedule here is very different from at home, and although I like it a lot, I am still not used to it. I do enjoy the food that my mamá cooks for me, and when I come back home I will probably like fish a lot more than I did when I first got here.

Anyway, so my stress level was out of control last week. If I had been in SLO, that would have been one of those weekends when I would have driven home and seen my family or just chilled on the couch or in bed, watching TV and movies and stuff and just relaxing. But, since I'm in Spain, I can't really do that. There is no real way for me to find time to do any of that. All the TV stations (besides CNN) are in Spanish, not to mention that there is so much to see of Spain and so much of Valladolid that I still haven't done, that I feel bad sitting at home doing nothing. Every once and a while (generally Friday afternoons) I watch an online TV show or two, but not too often. We aren't really supposed to have friends over to our houses, so even with them we have to go to a café (where you are expected to order something) or to a park (but it is freezing outside so it's hard to be comfortable while we are just sitting).

I've had midterms, homework overload, papers, travels, family, and so much more to keep up with that I haven't really known what to do with myself. I just finished taking my Spanish grammar midterm, so my stress level is a little lower right now. This weekend we are heading to Salamanca for a day trip and I'm super excited because my mom and Jeff are going to meet me in Salamanca and they are going to tour around with the Cal Poly group. I am really excited to see them, especially after the past week I've had.

I wanted to take this time to say I'm sorry to all the girls who I traveled with this past weekend. I know that I was not in the greatest mood and therefore not too fun to be around. I did have fun with you girls, though, and I hope that you guys don't hate me for being a little bit off. As I said before, I was really stressed and just needed to relax... but any time we go on a weekend trip, relaxation is kinda not an option. I'm sorry if I took my stress out on you girls. I love you all.

I also just want to say that I absolutely love my family. I am glad that I got to talk to my mom, dad, and Liana a lot this past week. I am glad that Grandpa Russ is doing well (at least from the last e-mail I received he is doing well). I am glad that I have gotten e-mails and video messages from Caitlin and Kelley. I miss my grandparents, my aunts, uncles, cousins, dogs, sisters, parents, friends, and everybody else so much. I am having the time of my life here, but I also can't wait to see you all when I come back to the States. I can't wait to share my adventures with you guys and show you pictures and tell stories and have you meet all the amazing friends I've made here.

I love you all so much and I'm glad that everything at home is finally going as it should be.

xoxo

Más Suiza

So, it has been a couple weekends since my trip to Zurich, Switzerland with my dad, but I figured I'd take this time to post a few more pictures and tell you all what we did. Sorry it took so long!

So on Friday, I skipped my Spanish culture class and headed to the Madrid airport so I could wait for my flight. The train from Valladolid to Madrid takes a little over an hour and it was nice to just sit and relax for that time. Daddy told me to get a seat by the window on my flight to Zurich because he said the view of Switzerland from the plane is absolutely beautiful.... I guess it would be if it wasn't overcast the entire time! Luckily, right before we landed, we got under the cloud coverage and I was able to see the beautiful green of Switzerland.

View from the plane... for some of the time I couldn't tell what were mountains and what were clouds

Beautiful Switzerland (the picture is kinda fuzzy because I was taking it from the plane)

When I got in to Zurich, I bought a train ticket to Oerlikon which is the part of Zurich that we were staying. A nice little old lady sat down and started talking to me in German, but when I told her I only spoke English she said "Oh dear, do you know where you're going? If you are going to Oerlikon, get off at the next stop." She was so cute and switched over to English like it was absolutely nothing.

Finally I met Daddy at the train station. We were both kinda wondering around looking for each other and I was so happy when I finally saw him! He gave me a HUGE hug which was what I had been looking forward to all week. That night, we dropped off my stuff at the hotel (a very nice Holiday Inn), grabbed a very nice dinner (pumpkin ravioli and red wine), and then went to bed.

The next day we woke up relatively early (although Daddy slept in a little late, so I just had a little bit of relaxation time), ate a wonderful breakfast of hash browns, eggs, bacon, and hot chocolate (aaah Swiss hot chocolate!) and started our day.

We took the bus to Zurich Proper where we were going to spend the day. The lady who was working at the front desk was very helpful and gave us a map with a very nice walking tour of Zurich.

Behind me are the super spiffy public buses!

As a little side note, the public transportation in Switzerland is impeccable!!! Theoretically we could have taken the metro without paying (nobody ever checked our tickets), but as Daddy said, "You almost want to pay to take public transportation." Seriously, nicest public transportation system I have ever been on.

For the rest of the day we wondered around downtown Zurich. We went up to a little park we had been told about and it looked down upon a lot of the city. We also popped our heads into some chocolate stores, took a "short" boat ride around the lake, and relaxed. There was an antique market set up next to the lake, so we made our way through the market and Daddy bought me a ring.

Me with a view of the city

Zurich

Antique market

Views from the boat

I forced Daddy to go to an American restaurant for lunch, but in hindsight that was not the greatest idea. We had nachos as an appetizer and then for my lunch I had a burger. It was good, but not as good as I get at home. I just really miss American/Mexican/home cooked food.

After lunch, we wondered around a little more and then headed home. We were both exhausted and just wanted to rest. At this point it was about 5 in the afternoon, and I fell asleep on the bus ride back to Oerlikon.

Once we were both a little bit more rested, we went downstairs and just grabbed dinner in the hotel restaurant. Once that was through, we went up to my hotel room and I showed Daddy pictures of my time in Spain. I told him who everybody was, showed him everywhere we'd been, and shared short little stories about my experiences. Although I bet he won't remember everybody's names (there are a lot of people to remember!), when he comes at the end of this month I think he will have an easier time of putting a name to a face.

The next morning we woke up super early because Daddy's flight was at 10 in the morning. Mine wasn't until 11:50, but I went with him to the airport so that I could spend more time with him. Luckily, the airport and the train station are the same thing so I could just hang out there, do a little bit of shopping, and relax. We went to a chocolate shop where we got delicious bars of chocolate (Thank you, Daddy!), grabbed coffee and pastries, then sat and had a lovely breakfast talk before it was time for him to go on his plane.

Although I was sad to say goodbye to him at the airport, I was still so glad that I got to see him, even for a short period of time. I can't wait until he comes to visit me at the end of November with my step mom, sisters, and aunties (Carol and Kathe).

I love you, Daddy! Thank you so much for flying me up to Switzerland so I could spend some time with you. I had a wonderful time. I love you and I miss you. Can't wait to see you in three weeks!

Just some photos of Daddy and me :)